Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J7/00—Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
  • H02J7/32—Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries for charging batteries from a charging set comprising a non-electric prime mover rotating at constant speed

Definitions

• This invention relates to a handheld battery-powered electric or electronic device. It relates especially to such a device whose batteries may be recharged without requiring an external power source.
• Small handheld or portable battery-powered devices are becoming ever more prevalent. These devices include cell phones, cameras, electronic games, radios, TVs, flashlights, GPS, receivers, recording and playback devices, etc. In many cases, such devices are powered by one or more batteries of the rechargeable type.
• the present invention aims to provide an improved handheld or portable battery-powered apparatus of the types identified above.
• Another object of the invention is to provide such apparatus whose battery can be recharged in the absence of an external power source.
• a further object of the invention is to provide apparatus of this nature whose battery can be recharged very easily, even by technically unsophisticated users.
• Yet another object of the invention is to provide a handheld battery-powered apparatus which houses, in a single compact package, all of the components necessary to operate the apparatus and recharge its battery.
• Another object of the invention is to provide a case for a handheld battery- powered device which is capable of recharging the device's battery or batteries.
• the present apparatus includes a battery-powered electrical or electronic device and an attached electric generator.
• the generator includes a rotor secured to a wall of the device and a stator projecting from the device, the stator having a flat exposed contact surface.
• the rotor and stator can be rotated relatively about an axis which is perpendicular to the contact surface and passes through the center of mass of the device.
• a voltage regulator circuit is connected between the generator and the device's battery so that when the apparatus is placed on a support surface with the contact surface
• the generator produces an electrical output which is conditioned by the regulator circuit to recharge the battery.
• the generator and regulator circuit may be included in the electronic device itself, preferably they are present in a case that protectively encloses the device.
• the generator is of a flat pancake-type construction that projects or protrudes a minimal distance from the device so that it does not add appreciably to the overall footprint or profile of the device by itself.
• the regulator circuit adapts or conditions the output signal from the generator to suit the power requirements of the particular device so that by spinning the device, the device's batteries may be recharged in a minimum amount of time.
• the batteries of the present apparatus can be recharged, even when outside power is not available, enabling a user to operate the device whenever that becomes necessary or desirable.
• FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a handheld battery-powered apparatus according to the invention
• FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view thereof
• FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2 showing the apparatus' generator and other components in detail;
• FIG. 3 A is a sectional view taken along line 3A-3A of FIG. 3;
• FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view on a larger scale of the rotor of the generator in FIG.
• FIG. 5 is a top plan view on the same scale of the stator of the generator in FIG. 3, and
• FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view showing the apparatus' voltage regulating circuit connected to the generator in FIG. 3.
• the present apparatus shown generally at 10, comprises a small electrical or electronic device 12 which is normally powered by one or more internal rechargeable batteries 12a.
• Device 12 may be any one of a number of conventional handheld or portable electrical or electronic devices, some of which are identified in the background section of this application.
• the illustrated device 12 happens to be a cell phone that is protectively enclosed in a flexible case 14 which is designed to expose the phone's display screen and to allow access to the phone's various controls and connector ports. These ports include a standard input port 12b (FIG. 3) normally used to recharge the device's battery 12a from a remote power source.
• a flat pancake-shaped generator shown generally at 16 is secured by case 14 to the back of device 12.
• Generator 16 includes a rotor 16b which is fixed to case 14 and a stator 16a which projects somewhat from the back of the case and has an exposed flat undersurface with a high coefficient of friction.
• a support S e.g. a table
• the generator 16 produces an electrical output sufficient to charge the battery 12a in device 12.
• the apparatus 10 includes a voltage regulating circuit which is preferably located in case 14 to adapt and condition the electrical output from generator 16 to charge the particular battery 12a in device 12.
• case 14 includes a bottom wall 14a, a side wall 14b which extends all the way around the device 12 and a top wall in the form of a bezel 14c which frames the front face of device 12.
• the generator 16 is mounted to a thin, rigid plate 22.
• the ends of plate 22 are formed with protrusions or keys 22a and 22b which extend, respectively, upwardly and downwardly, as best seen in FIG. 3 and the plate 22 is adapted to be received in a pocket 24 formed in the bottom wall 14a of case 14. Access to that pocket is provided via two transverse slits 26 in the outside face of bottom wall 14a which bracket semi-circular cutouts 27.
• the generator's rotor 16b comprises an inverted cup-like member 32 which is mounted in a circular opening 22c centered in plate 22 so that the top wall 32a of member 32 is flush with the plate and the member's side wall 32b extends down through the opening 27, 27 in the bottom wall of case 14.
• concentric circular arrays of radially oriented ferrite pole pieces 34 are mounted to the bottom wall 32a within member 32.
• there are three concentric arrays which are radially spaced to provide three concentric gaps 38 between adjacent arrays and between the outermost array and the member wall 32b.
• there are three pole pieces 34 in the innermost array nine pole pieces in the middle array and fifteen pole pieces in the outermost array, each pole piece having a corresponding winding 36.
• the particular number of arrays and the number of pole piece/windings in each array may vary depending on the required generator 16 output voltage.
• a multiplicity of small permanent magnets 42 are mounted to the inner surface of the member wall 32b at uniformly spaced-apart locations therearound.
• the rotor 16b in FIG. 4 has fifty such magnets 42.
• the stator component 16a of generator 16 comprises a cup-like member 46 having a somewhat smaller diameter than member 32 enabling the former member to nest inside the latter member so that the flat bottom wall 46a of member 46 is even with or slightly below the edge of member wall 32b.
• a thin pad 47 of a material having a high coefficient of friction, e.g. rubber, is adhered to the bottom or outside surface of member wall 46a so that the pad extends down below rotor 16b as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
• stator member 46 Extending up from bottom wall 46a of stator member 46 are concentric arrays of ring magnets 48, three such arrays being shown in FIG. 5, with the outermost ring magnet 48 hugging the inside surface of side wall 46b of member 46.
• Each ring magnet 48 is segmented at a boundary 48a and the segments on opposite sides of the boundary are oppositely radially polarized (N vs. S) so that a magnetic flux change occurs at each boundary.
• small permanent magnets 52 are provided at each boundary 48a at the radially outer surface of the outermost ring magnet 48 for reasons to be described later.
• the stator illustrated in FIG. 4 has nine such boundaries 48a and nine magnets 52.
• the ring magnets 48 extend up into the three concentric gaps 38 in the rotor 16b (FIG. 4).
• the rotor and stator are rotatably coupled together by rotary bearing or axle 54 extending between their opposing walls 32a and 46a, respectively, so that the rotor 16b can pivot on axle 54 about axis A. It will be apparent from the foregoing that when the apparatus 10 is placed on a support surface S as shown in FIG. 1 and the case 14 and its contents are spun about axis A, the generator rotor 16b will rotate while the stator 16a remains stationary.
• the magnetic flux changes ' encountered by the rotor windings 36 at each magnet boundary 48a will induce a current in those windings as is well known in the art.
• the windings 36 in the three concentric winding arrays are all wound and connected in series so that in sum, they produce a fluctuating DC voltage when the device 12 is spinning about axis A.
• the axis A is perpendicular to the plate 22 and to the stator member wall 46a shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 and also passes through the center of mass M of the device 12 and the apparatus as a whole so that during the spinning motion of case 14 and its contents, the apparatus remains in balance so that the electrical output from generator 16 varies in a substantially regular manner.
• the output from the illustrated generator may vary in a sinusoidal fashion between 8 and 10 VDC while the device is spinning at a reasonable speed, e.g. 50-300 RPM.
• a printed circuit board 62 is positioned in case 14 above plate 22. Preferably, that circuit is isolated from the case interior by an insulating inner liner 63.
• the circuit board has printed wiring that connects all of the rotor windings 36 in series and supports a voltage regulating circuit 64 which, in its simplest form, includes a bridge rectifier 64a, the output of which charges a capacitor bank 64b. The capacitors control the rectifier to release 5-7 VDC which is sufficient to charge the batteries 12a in device 12.
• a more elaborate regulating circuit 64 may provide a DC output having the same polarity no matter the spinning direction and provide signals to control the device 12 display to apprise the user that the device is spinning at a sufficient recharging rate and to display other relevant parameters.
• the output of the regulating circuit 64 appears on terminals 68 which plug into port 70a of a charging dock 70 at an end of case 14.
• the charging dock 70 also has a connector 70b arranged and adapted to plug into the standard battery charging port 12b of device 12 when the device is in case 14. Since the voltage regulation circuit 64 is located in case 14 and is not part of generator 16 per se, it can be matched to the particular device 12 in case 14 so that the device's batteries receive the proper charge. If, in a given application, the output voltage from a generator 16 should have to be reduced for some reason, this may be done simply by bypassing one or more of the windings 36 at the circuit board 62 with the remaining windings remaining in series.
• the rotational inertia of the device will keep it spinning for an appreciable length of time before another spinning impulse from the user is required.
• the aforesaid permanent magnets 42 and 52 are provided on the generator's rotor 16b and stator 16a, respectively. These permanent magnets are radially polarized so that their magnetic flux lines are more or less perpendicular to the fluxes at the boundaries 48a of the outermost ring magnet 48 of the stator 16a. Thus, they function to minimize so-called "cogging" of the generator's rotor 16b when the generator is under a load, i.e. while charging battery 12a.
• the present apparatus can be used in many situations in which external power is unavailable to recharge the device's battery 12a. Indeed, even if that battery is defective, the device 12 can be powered directly by generator 16 as long as the device is spinning. For example, if the device 12 is a flashlight, it can still provide light in an emergency.

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• 2010
  • 2010-06-22 US US12/820,406 patent/US8344693B2/en active Active
• 2011
  • 2011-06-02 WO PCT/US2011/000994 patent/WO2011162798A2/en active Application Filing
  • 2011-06-02 EP EP11726530.6A patent/EP2586114B1/en active Active
  • 2011-06-02 CN CN201180040836.9A patent/CN103168407B/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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